Jean-François Octave

Emblematic of Octave’s work, the work mixes references that are ide­o­log­i­cal­ly opposed: on the one hand, the hero-like staging of the defenders of Sevastopol against the Nazi invasion, in the classical register of Socialist Realism and, on the other hand, the apparent lightness of the pop reference, an illus­tra­tion of capitalism exploiting all the stages of mass enter­tain­ment for commercial purposes; even though it contains forms of subversion (the disco subculture being the first ostensible stage for homo­sex­u­al­i­ty). The artist also highlights the eroticism of this young man with a muscular body, emphasising that the working man’s imagery by Socialist Realism exudes a certain (homo) sexual ide­al­i­sa­tion of the male body. This (homo)sexual ide­al­i­sa­tion is also one of the powers behind disco music… By associating these two opposing ideological conceptions, Jean-François Octave emphasises the same use of the sexual realm, on both sides of the old iron curtain.